Follow Blog via Email

Jackson Five Friday: The Anger Epidemic

Is it just me or is the world just getting angrier and angrier with each passing day? I’ve been thinking about this. Where does the anger come from? Is it from unmet expectations? Is it focusing too much on how we’ve been aggrieved? Is anger contagious, like it’s just being passed around again and again like a bad cold? Or is it we somehow have come to believe that people are superhuman — that they won’t let us down?

Surely there are many factors, but I think there are some basic truths that should help us fend off the nastiness.

Here are two:

We are ALL sinners. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When you angrily look down on someone, giving them grace is not really an option. But “a person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.” (Proverbs 19:11).

This life isn’t all there is. Justice and mercy met on the cross. The assurance of the Christian is that justice will be done. Have you been wronged? Take heart, Jesus has overcome the world, and eternal justice awaits. Of course we should be instruments of His grace and peace, and we should seek justice in this world. Justice for all should be continuously sought. However, if you are determined to be angry unless perfect justice is attained, then you are going to live a bitter existence.

Ann Voskamp said, “Anger is the lid that suffocates joy.” I want to rid my life of all such lids, don’t you? I want to live with a heart of gratitude, joyfully celebrating small victories, and trusting wholly that God has it all figured out. I need to be clay in His hands, willing always to play my part but never suckered into thinking I could ever figure it all out.

So Happy Friday friends! Praise God that the weight of straightening out the world does not rest on your shoulders or mine. May we be malleable in God’s infinitely wise hands and confident that He will guide us to just the right role in His redemptive plan.